The Faith Doctor: A Story of New YorkEggleston, Edward
General
The Faith Doctor: A Story of New York
Eggleston, Edward
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
"She thought so herself, on reflection," said Mrs. Hilbrough. "She also
had grace enough to remember that she might have been a little more
delicate in her way of tendering the money. She likes to do things
royally, so she dispatched her footman to Mrs. Callender with a note
inclosing a check for a thousand dollars, asking the mother to use it
for the benefit of her daughter. Mrs. Callender took the check to Mrs.
Gouverneur, and asked her, as having some acquaintance with Mrs.
Maginnis, to explain that Phillida could not accept any pay for
religious services or neighborly kindness. Mrs. Gouverneur"--here Mrs.
Hilbrough smiled--"saw the ghosts of her grandfathers looking on, I
suppose. She couched her note to Mrs. Maginnis in rather chilling terms,
and Mrs. Maginnis understood at last that she had probably given
offense. She went to Mrs. Frankland, who referred her to me, as
Phillida's friend, and she called here yesterday in a flutter of
hysterical importance to get me to apologize, and to ask me what she
_could_ do."
Millard was almost amused at this turn in the affair, but his smile had
a tang of bitterness.
"She explained that she had not understood that Miss Callender was that
kind of person," said Mrs. Hilbrough. "She had always supposed that
ministers and missionaries and their families expected presents. When
she was a little girl her father used to send a whole hog to each
minister in the village every fall when he killed his pigs. But it
seemed Miss Callender and her mother held themselves above presents.
Were they 'people of wealth'? That is her favorite phrase. I told her
that they were one of the best old families in the city, without much
property but with a great deal of pride, and that they were very
admirable people. 'You know, these very old and famous families hold
themselves rather above the rest of us, no matter how rich we may get to
be,' I said, maliciously.
"This seemed almost to subdue her. She said that she supposed people
would expect her to do something at such a time. It was always expected
that 'people of wealth' should show themselves grateful. What could she
do that would not offend such touchy people?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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